about i choose dignity in waterloo region

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You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.

A.A. Milne from Winnie the Pooh

”

The I Choose Dignity movement was born out of our wish to share with the community the wonderful skills and talents that the citizens we serve have and want to share. We want to come out of our corner of the Forest and walk with pride together with our fellow community members and say, “Here we are. We want to contribute. We are part of this community and we have a lot to offer.” We want to celebrate your gifts and ours.

We want to share with you what it means to CHOOSE DIGNITY - to be treated with dignity and respect and treat others the same way. Please join us in committing to treat all our community members with dignity and respect by together saying and living “I choose dignity”.

Extend-A-Family is a local agency born of parents who had sons and daughters with disabilities but believed that their children had a lot to offer this community, even though they might need help with certain things in their lives (not much different than most of us). EAF works to walk alongside the people we serve, people who, with some support work or volunteer in the community. They are loving sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and/or friends. People who are talented artists, dancers, singers, cooks, mechanics among a slew of other ventures. People who are caring, compassionate, humourous, hardworking, kind - sometimes grumpy, frustrated or sad. People like you and me. People deserving of dignity.

Come join us as we celebrate together all of our many gifts. Men, women, old, young, LGBTQ, straight, Canadian, new Canadian, athletic, couch potato. We all have something to offer. We all are valuable.

Let’s come together and celebrate.

Try to Imagine.....

This is an invitation to consider your gifts. What it is that you love to do, that gives you joy or a sense of accomplishment and which allows you to express what is uniquely you. It might be a talent, like playing the guitar or soccer or speaking in sign language. It might be something you just love to do like driving or walking or visiting art galleries or museums. It might just be the love of being with people, talking, getting to know them over a coffee. Gifts are sometimes amazing but, more often, are just simple expressions of what we value or hold dear. And, we all have them!

Now consider what your life would be like if you couldn’t express your gifts or had no time to develop them or no one to share them with. This picture might include isolation, a lack of contribution, disconnection from your community, a lack of choice to pursue what interests or excites you.